Maybe I Should Learn to Adapt to the Weather

Today it snowed. And rained.  Then it snowed again.  Then it rained again.  Then it snowed and the wind blew like crazy.  Pretty much every time I left a building, it felt like I was on a boat in The Deadliest Catch.  

I am learning how to dress correctly quickly. Meaning, I actually have to dress in response to the weather.  Also, my "winter jacket" is really a shell that I actually have to LAYER something under.  Note I have had this jacket since the eight grade. You would think I would have figured this out by now.  No. For many years I have survived by spending most of my winter days running from the car to a heated building, in the very mild state of Maryland.  

Today was so busy! I had a pretty useless meeting with my advisor who pretty much said, "Well, you look pretty set. You obviously have a handle on things. Good luck with registration!" So it's pretty much a free-for-all.  Then I pretty much ran from the Park school to the library, trying to not die in the horrific weather, to the library.  It was quite the trek.  There, I met with friend KM and we solidified our awesome plans and prep for our debate Friday, in which we will defend Title IX against those who say it hurts males.  We are going to win so crucially.  

Then, I headed to a meeting where I got information about becoming a "Dean's Host," which is pretty much like a Park Tour guide, but you also attend special admissions sessions and host prospective Parkies throughout the year.  There's a long training session, but I really want to do it.  One of the requirements is that you have to be totally obsessed with the Park School.  I qualify.  You also have to have stories to tell about your involvement in classes and extracurriculars, and that some people have to wait for sophomore year to have enough. I've got plenty already.  Seriously, it's crazy what I've been able to do this year already.  

I then went straight to Political Communications class, which is getting really repetitive.  The election is only a week away!  I can hardly bear it.  I've been absorbing every piece of election coverage I could find for almost two years now.  What will it come to? What will I be able to tell my children (if that ever happens) about when I tell them about my first election? 

I came back to the dorm and my friend SW and I thawed out with cups of tea.  I then scurried back out into the cold with friend AP, who is from Ithaca, both her parents work here, and she still thought the weather was horrific today.  Justified! Mass media class makes me want to smack myself repeatedly with several textbooks, but I survived.  We have an exam on election day. WHAT? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FOCUS ON THAT? I'll manage, but I'll be bitter and angry about having to.  

We had an extra Inquirer shoot at 8, and I got to work floor manager because we didn't have tapes for this one, because there were only a few clips and they would work it in later with FinalCut Pro.  Basically as floormanager I relayed directions in studio from producer Nick (whom the parents and Amma and Papa met while visiting) to host Greg.  It wasn't all that hard, but I certainly felt important.  

I've gotten a bunch of work done tonight, and I'm quite proud.  I'm making it through this week! It's supposed to snow, not even rain, tomorrow.  YAY! 

One Really Bad Blog Post

Here is what I am thinking:

1. I like not finishing my political communications paper, even though I'm only 1 paragraph away.

2. I like the Redskins. A lot. I also love Clinton Portis, who said about matching O.J. Simpson's record of having five consecutive games with over 120 rushing yards:

"It's great company. That's about the only time you can say O.J. Simpson is great company."

3. I like that all my Bills AND Jets fans friends are wickedly jealous of me. 

4. I don't like that I haven't been posting as often.

5. I am kind of split on the fact that my parents brought me a giant box of goldfish, and it sits conveniently near my desk right at hand level...a little TOO convenient...

6. I like that I have a meeting with my crazy advisor tomorrow morning. 

7. I like doing laundry. Ish.

8. I don't like that my conscience is telling me to get back to work.  

Conscience wins!

Rainy Saturday

Let's start this off by saying I'm heading to my LAST field hockey game in less than an hour.  It is pouring rain. 

This should be funnnnn.

I didn't end up updating again yesterday because I got distracted by the fact that it was Friday!  I made cookies, watched a movie, and made collages with my dormmates, because it was raining and there was no way we were leaving.  

We watched Jesus Christ Superstar, which I was pretty skeptical about to start with, but it was pretty awesome. My friend Michele kept having to explain to me what was happening, and at one point, she exclaimed, "ABBY seriously, didn't you ever go to VBS?!"  VBS, apparently, stands for Vacation Bible School.  In fact, I did once attend it, but the only thing I really remember from that is the time when an older girl told Claire and me if we ate the black watermelon seeds a watermelon would grow in our stomachs.  This probably explains why I seriously had no idea who anyone was in this musical.  Except Jesus.  I could pick him out of a crowd.  Andrew Lloyd Weber is awesome. I really enjoyed watching it.  

This weekend and following week will be crazy.  Many papers are due and there are tons of things to get done before I leave on Friday.  Luckily, the next crazy week ends with a trip to an actual home with an actual bathroom in which the sink and the toilet are in the same area.  There's also this little thing called the Bills and Jets game that will go along with my trip. 

I really really don't want to go sit in the rain. 

On the plus side, I am totally growing as a person because I just killed a giant bug that was flying around my room.  But after I screamed and threw my binder at it, I had to get my friend C to come and take it away.  She's so nice.  I'm getting there. Someday I will be able to remove the bugs I kill.  

The end.  Good post, right? 

One Beat Ends, Another Begins

Okay, so my winter beat has been assigned.  Drum roll please...

Men's swimming and diving!

So that should be fun, and they only have like 4 home meets, on Saturdays.  So it should be a lighter load than field hockey was.  They are also swimming RPI this year.  

I have more to report, but not enough time to do so, so expect another update later! 

Big Winds and One Freaky Weather Forecast

Just about everyone on campus, including the really manly football players (okay, and the not-so-manly ones too) let out a really loud shriek every time they exited a building.  The winds were crazy, and it made low forties feel like it was a wet February night.  It is October.  It is supposed to snow lightly tonight.  

WHAT. 

My horror is so great that I am unable to inflect a question mark on that sentence.  Even non-verbally.  Imagine my eyes growing very wide, and staying that way for about 5 minutes.  There we have it.  That's how I feel.  Of course I know I signed up for this. That won't stop me from whining about it.  My feelings about the weather in Ithaca kind of compare to those of a former-Bush supporter.  But I don't think I screwed up that royally.  It's not really a screw up at all.  It's just cold.  And I'm just bitter that I can't wear flip flops. That's all.  

Today not much happened except I tripped on the crazy tiles outside of Textor Hall and pretty much ate concrete.  Luckily there was only like 2 other people because my class had gotten out early.  Still, I tore the knee of a pair of jeans a little, and that damages the glamorous aesthetic I have been maintaining throughout this college experience.  Sarcasm!  

Oh, except today I VOTED (!) for the first time ever in a general election.  I sent in my absentee ballot after doing some reading and filling everything out.  So that's settled.  I've officially participated in the democratic process!  

Some of my friends and I went to watch the Ithaca Idol competition today after dinner, and it was very entertaining. Ithaca's got a lot of music, voice majors, so there were some great acts.  There were some not so great ones too.  That made it so much better.  But of course everyone was very nice.  

Tomorrow? Nothing dramatic, just classes. 

My 18th Birthday So Far!

It's only noon and it has already been a fabulous birthday. 

I woke up to a door covered in birthday wishes, and got immediately attacked with birthday hugs while I was rubbing sleep out of my eyes and trudging to the bathroom.  My e-mail, facebook, and text inbox has been flooded with love!  It sounds cheesy, but amazing.  

Another cool thing about today, along with the impending cake party later tonight in my dorm, is that I was invited to be a guest on the "Bomber Nation" podcast.  For the first time I'm being interviewed, about the field hockey team.  Hey guys, I'm an expert analyst!  I'm the Adam Schefter of Bomber field hockey, minus the grating arrogance (maybe)!  So I'm taping that around 7:30 tonight with the host.  

The Redskins won as a birthday present to me, I'm sure.  The Cowboys also lost, to put icing on the cake.  LOVE IT!

Updates today are to be expected, so you can check back later!

*Maybe Chris Cooley was inspired by my haiku about last week's game, because he wrote a limerick on his blog about yesterday's game.  Great minds think (relatively) alike!

7:00 p.m.  I got the biggest cake ever delivered to my door with a balloon attached!  THEN my amazingly nice roomie made me a birthday cake! I'm heading to my interview soon but I'm mad happy right now.  I'll try to take pictures, if I remember. Oh and I also got lovely cards in the mail from my Uncle Judd, Michelle, and Grandma! Today has been so great. 

There's a cake party at 9 in the kitchen, we're going to try to demolish both cakes!

Rensselaer Adventure

It was one amazing fall break.  Let's go through it, shall we?  

I got up at 9 Thursday morning, showered and scurried over to the dining hall to stuff my face before my epic journey around the great state of New York.  I had a swim bag full of clothes, my iPod, and a book for the bus ride(s).  The cab I had arranged for was even a little bit early.  At first I was a bit confused because they sent a giant van to get me, maybe expecting more than one girl and a single bag.  They grabbed some other kid a minute later and we finally departed the IC campus.  It was gray and rainy, but I still loved winding through the town I'm still not too familiar with and staring at all the leaves and houses.  I enjoy looking at houses now.  They are like inviting dorms with their own bathrooms.  

Of course the bus station was in a slightly shift area, but I am from Wheaton, so I was largely unfazed because it was about 11:30 in the morning.  The bus station seemed to be built about 500 years ago, seriously, because everything was wooden and their bathroom stalls were obviously made for midgets.  It turned out that the bus I was taking to Albany required me to change buses in Binghamton with an hour layover.  At that point, I didn't even care.  The fact that I had a ticket in my hand and a definite time of departure was enough for me.  I waited for about 45 minutes and the Trailways bus rolled up.  I hopped on, and it was a pretty nice bus! Now perks, but it was clean and I had a seat all to myself.  I stared out the window for the two hours to Binghamton.  I ooohed and ahhhhed at all the leaves.  I'm good at entertaining myself.  

The Binghamton station was fine.  I entertained myself for the hour with vending machine and watching the CNN they had playing.  I considered trying out the "Deer Hunter Version IX" video game, but I wasn't in the mood for shooting crudely-animated deer at that moment.  

My next bus was probably constructed while The Partridge Family was all the rage.  That's all I'm saying.  This bus made a few more stops at the most random SUNYs in the world, most of which I had never heard of.  Finally I got off at Albany at the sketchiest station ever, and grabbed the first cab I found.  The guy wasn't exactly sure where RPI was (I know, WHAT?!) so it ended up costing me like 30 bucks.  Claire's lovely friends found me in the Union and took me to dinner.  They were a really awesome bunch.  Then, Claire came back from crew and I was ridiculously happy.  I went with her to meet some of her crew friends, who were pretty hilarious.  

It was so much fun reconnecting with Claire, I even ended up going with her to chemistry the next morning.  I played on her laptop and marveled at the 320 person lecture hall.  Claire snuck me into dining hall #3 (we never paid for a meal for me!) and we had lunch.  I wasn't too keen on sitting through biology, so I wandered around campus and headed back to her dorm, where mom and dad met me!  They came bearing many gifts including CHIPOTLE.  Oh yes, we have the most amazing parents in the world, ones who would buy burritos for their children and refrigerate them while they crossed multiple state lines.  We went shopping, watched Claire be honored with the Rensselaer medal (during which I established that yes, her school was awesome, but my acapella groups were better).  We then went out to dinner and ate even more good food, and enjoyed all being together again.  Mom, Dad, and I said goodbye to Claire and hopped in the car to return to Ithaca.  

The next day Amma and Pappa joined us for a tour of the gorgeous Ithaca campus, and they got to see the TV studio I work in.  We found another awesome restaurant, had lunch, and took in a little local culture at the friends of the library book sale.  It's so cool having Papa and Amma so close.  I'll be visiting them for the Buffalo game in just two weeks!  Afterwards, Mom, Dad and I paid 6 bucks to explore gorge trail, which we found out was kind of like the stairmaster from hell.  It was fun and pretty, even so.  We were all pretty tired, and like the enthusiastic explorers we are, we decided our next activity was lying on Mom and Dad's hotel bed with cheeseburgers watching the Penn State football game.  It was bliss.  

This morning we ate at the Ithaca Bakery and drove around lake Cayuga.  Mom and Dad then came and tricked out my room, giving me enough food to last me for years, lowering my bed, setting up my printer, mounting my mirror, trimming my bangs, and pretty much setting me up for life.  It's SO nice to have parents take care of you.  

The best part?  I'm reenergized to return to classes and studies, my room is awesome, and it's only a month until Thanksgiving break.  I miss my dormmates.  I want them to come back!  

Anyway, this was the longest post ever.  For an amazingly perfect break.